This Week

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring 
And love is not the easy thing 
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind.

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it s a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong
Walk on, walk on

What you got they can't steal it
No they can t even feel it
Walk on, walk on, stay safe tonight
Leave it behind
You ve got to leave it behind

All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme.... 
----Walk On, U2

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, 
he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent 
messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered 
a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 
but they did not receive him, because his face was 
set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James 
and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us 
to command fire to come down from heaven and 
consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. 
Then they went on to another village. 

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, 
"I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said 
to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have 
nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." 

To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, 
"Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 
But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their 
own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the 
kingdom of God." 

Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me 
first say farewell to those at my home." 
Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the 
plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." 
----Luke 9:51-62

While there is a metaphorical quality about Luke's 
language (for example, "Let the dead bury their own dead"), 
it nevertheless sharply confronts the family-oriented 
social system of the Jewish and Hellenistic worlds 
with the critical nature of discipleship. 
The translation to the contemporary setting must 
somehow not water down the rigor and severity of 
Jesus' demands. Accommodation to social structures 
rather than separation from them, divided loyalties 
rather than single-mindedness, are more likely 
to characterize modern Christians, and Jesus words 
can continue to challenge, prod, and even anger today's 
followers and would-be followers.
---- Texts for Preaching: 
A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV Year C

He who, having cast off human attachment, 
has left behind the attraction of the gods,
he who is free from all attachment, 
he, I declare, is a brahmin. 
---- Udnavarga 33:52, quoted in 
"Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings" by Marcus Borg

Essence is emptiness
Everything else
Accidental.
Emptiness brings peace to loving.
Everything else, disease.
In this world of trickery
Emptiness
Is what your soul wants.
----Rumi